Obama Talks Travel, His Legacy And His Bucket List

When Barack Obama reflects on his favorite travels, he thinks
of his first pilgrimage to Kenya, the home of his father, Barack Obama Sr.
Raised by a single mother in Hawaii, the former U.S. president visited the
country in his mid-20s to connect to the dad he never knew, after the elder
Obama died of a car accident there in 1982.

“I wanted to understand him and understand the land he was from,” Obama explained to a crowd of travel and tourism professionals, business leaders and government officials at the World Travel & Tourism Council’s 2019 Global Summit in Seville, Spain, April 3 during an intimate discussion with Christopher J. Nassetta, WTTC chairman and president/CEO of Hilton.

But before his month in Kenya, Obama stopped in Europe for the
first time. “I wasn’t staying at the Hilton because I didn’t have any money,”
he joked. “I’d basically buy a baguette and cheese and eat that every day.”

In Europe, he took an overnight bus from Madrid. “We arrived in
Barcelona and it was just daybreak, and I remember walking towards Las Ramblas,
towards town, and the sun was coming up. Those kinds of trips are memorable
because they are part of you as a young person trying to discover what your
place in the world is.”

Of course, many of his most unforgettable journeys were with
other young people, his daughters. “There’s something spectacular about seeing
a new place, experiencing a different culture, being exposed to new ideas,
travel makes you grow. But as a parent, when you are able to watch that sense
of discovery in your children’s eyes, that is more special than anything else,”
he said. “Some of them have been spectacular—us walking through the Kremlin as
president. And Sasha was about seven years old and she had a trench coat on and
looked like an international spy.”

Read on for edited snippets of Obama’s proudest presidential
achievements, his views on the challenges facing the world and what’s left on
his travel bucket list.

Obama In Seville. Credit: World Travel & Tourism Council

Facing World Challenges

“The thing that we are seeing most is the degree in which the
disruptions that are occurring from technology, from globalization, from this
constant stream of information make people feel insecure. It makes them feel
uncertain about the world around them. Some of them are very concrete: the
changes that are taking place economically mean that particularly in advanced
economies, but even in middle-income countries, people who felt fairly
comfortable suddenly are finding that they have to run very fast just to stay
in place.

Some of it has to do with identity and culture, so whether it’s
Brexit in the U.K. or the political upheavals that have happened in the United
States or some of the surge in populism in continental Europe. All of those are
not just reactions to economic changes but also reaction to people feeling as if
their status is being revoked or their sense of what their country is being
undermined, and they either want to put up genuine walls or metaphorical walls
to preserve what they think they have.

So you see this sort of nationalism, negativism, xenophobia.
Those are dangerous. Because it’s not isolated to one particular country. It’s
a global phenomenon.

One of the benefits of travel, obviously, is it reminds people
both of the incredible value of our diversity on this planet and the
differences we have, because that’s what makes food in Sevilla different than
food from Bangkok — and they are both really good. Travel also reminds us of
what we share, of what we have in common. The ability to recognize ourselves in
each other.

I’m also worried about the destabilization of our environment.
Climate change is not something off in the future. It is demonstrably happening
right now. And we are seeing it in some of the most beautiful places on this
planet.

The good news is that there are things we can do to make a
difference. The bad news is that right now our politics is not designed to
tackle those things as quickly.”

Obama at the 2019 Global Summit. Credit: World Travel & Tourism Council

Fixing These Problems

“The generations behind us are more sophisticated, more
worldly, more cosmopolitan, more appreciative of other cultures. When I look at
Malia and Sasha, in part because they have been able to consume the entire
world on [their mobile devices], they are not afraid of difference, they are
not afraid of change, they are not afraid of things that are unusual or
unfamiliar and that’s the world they grew up in.

As a consequence, I think the politics of erecting walls,
certainly in the United States, does not appeal to young people. It’s one they
fundamentally reject. There’s a fairly strong correlation in the United States
between progressive attitudes about different cultures, different ethnicities,
different sexual orientations and age.

The end of the baby boom helped to solidify a belief in the
United States with civil rights, women’s rights and a lot of those values. The
young people behind us feel in those things even more strongly. They’ve grown
up with them.

The bad news is that old people don’t like to let go of power.
And old people tend to vote more than young people.

Part of what I think is the key is to get young people engaged
and involved in rebuilding institutions that are responsive to their needs to
make sure that their concerns are represented.”

Waikiki Beach. Credit: Hawaii Tourism Authority/Tor Johnson

How Growing Up In Hawaii
And Indonesia Shaped His Presidential Perspective

“One obvious way in which it shaped me was recognizing that in
this big world of ours, there are great differences and great commonalities. I
was less fearful of different cultures, and my capacity to make a connection
and find common ground and higher ground.

It probably created a certain amount of humility for me, in the
sense that one of the great things of spending time outside of the United
States when you’re young, is it makes you love your country in many ways that
much more. You appreciate the incredible privilege that someone growing up in
the United States has about a country of plenty, a country of opportunity, a
country that, for all its flaws, abides by certain principles, ideals, rule of
law, human rights and freedoms that are in our Constitution.

But it also made me recognize that there are a lot of wonderful
countries with wonderful people who are proud of their stuff, too.

And I think I brought to the office the perspective that says
the thing that has made the United States such an outstanding country is not
when we force or bully our way into the international order, but when we lead
by example, and persuasion and cultural influence.

When I was president, I made it a point of visiting cultural
sites, and sometimes I would get into trouble back home because the
conservative or opposition media [would say], “Oh, Obama’s on vacation.”

Part of diplomacy is letting other people know that you
recognize them, that you recognize and appreciate their cultures, their stories
and their history, and their memories. When people feel as if they are known,
they’re understood and seen, then they are more open to your perspectives as
well. That’s true in individuals and that’s true in nations. And I think maybe
I understood that a little bit more by virtue of the experiences I had as a
child.”

South Africa. Credit: South African Tourism

The Obama Foundation’s
Efforts In Africa

“When I was prepared to leave office, I
asked myself, what am I going to do with myself and what will be most useful?
The thing that I thought I was uniquely able to do along with Michelle is
inspire young people to get involved and engage so that they can take the baton
and move things forward. So what we decided was essentially to make the Obama
Foundation really a training ground, a university in some ways, for leadership
and social change for young people who want to be difference makers around the
world.

And part of the genesis of this was when I was president, I
very early on I started a habit of having town halls with young people in every
country I visited. I’d have an assembly of 100, 500 young people. I would just
call on them, they’d ask me questions and we’d have a discussion.

We started the Young African Leaders Program, where we were
going bring 500 young leaders across the continent to the United States to
study, learn, come up with a plan for development that they would take back to
their home countries. For 500 spots, we got 50,000 applications. So it was
easier to get into Stanford or Harvard than it was to get into this thing. Long
story short: the foundation now is partnering with universities and nonprofit
groups in Africa, Asia and Europe.”

The New Mindset Of Young
Travelers

“Young travelers have a different attitude. Malia and Sasha,
they want experiences. You know, pampering is nice, when they’re traveling with
their mom and their dad, they like room service and spa stuff sometimes, but
what really excites them is being able to feel as if they are interacting with
a new culture, learning and meeting people, music, the food.

We also have to be environmentally conscious. If they feel as
if the nature of an attraction or a site in the city is not conservation
conscious, I think they’ll be less interested.

I think travel for [young women] poses some specific
interesting issues around safety and security and the attitudes of men in
places. So if you are part of a tourism council in a city or a nation where
women feel uncomfortable when they are traveling, that will potentially reduce
your market.

They’ve got a tougher attitude. They are smarter about it. They
aren’t going to put up with it. They don’t need to be harassed or feel unsafe
when traveling.”

Obama Talks To A Rapt Audience. Credit: World Travel & Tourism Council

His Proudest Presidential
Moments

“People take for granted that we helped save the world economy
— that was a big deal. Part of the reason people understandably overlook it is
because we prevented a Great Depression, but we did not fix all of the trends
that I think have concerned people about growing inequality, stagnant wages,
youth unemployment.

I’m very proud of providing health care to people didn’t have it in the United States. Internationally, I’m very proud of the Paris Accord [an ambitious effort by nations to combat climate change], even though right now the new president isn’t sticking to it. It provided a framework for all nations to recognize their responsibilities in addressing what will be the defining issue of our time.

And Michelle and I talk about this sometimes, we’re proud that
we came out of eight years in a challenging situation intact. Meaning, we had
no scandals, we maintained a high level of integrity. People say absolute power
corrupts absolutely, but what I found is that power reveals more than anything else.”

Sao Paulo. Credit: iStock Brasil25

What’s On His Bucket
List

“Angkor Wat. I was in Cambodia for an [Association of Southeast
Asian Nations] meeting. I was two hours away and could not get there because
there was a crisis back home.

I still haven’t seen the Taj Mahal. I was scheduled to go and
then King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia passed away, and we decided to stop in
Riyadh.

I love Latin America, and I’ve been to Rio and Sao Paulo, but there are parts like Bahia I want
to go check out. Going further south, Argentina — a spectacular country. Chile.
Patagonia — that’s on the bucket list.

We’re thinking of jumping off to Antarctica. Secret Service wasn’t that thrilled about the logistics of that because if the weather turned, we might not be able to get in communications for several weeks. But now that I’m no longer president, I may have to go make that trip.”